Autoimmunity Assays & HIV

Oct 2, 2005

Dear Doctor Holodniy,
With the recent news that an Iraeli medical team showed positive results in CD4+ T cell counts within a small cohort of HIV+ patients who received a vaccine that supposedly shut-down one or more auto-immune responses caused by HIV, I would like to know more about the auto-immune assays that presently exist.

Since I became HIV+ in late 1987, I've had minor psoriasis, enlarged parotid glands and inflammation in my spine. Are there any assays that can definitively detect an auto-immune response against my skin, tissues in my parotid glands and/or spine?

Have you ever heard of an ELISA-ACT test for immune/allergy responses?

Thank you very much,

Response from Dr. Holodniy

Don't know anything about this for HIV infection. It has been used in allergy screening, among other medical issues.

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